Geneva cop lights up boy’s birthday, lets him inside police car

GENEVA – Louis Morelli of Geneva is obsessed with police officers and wants to be one someday.

“That’s his dream, ever since he started to talk,” said Jessica Morelli, his mother.

So when it came to planning a birthday party for her 5-year-old son, Jessica Morelli knew just what to do.

“He loves playing cops and robbers and wanted a police-themed birthday party,” Jessica Morelli said, “I called the Geneva Police Department, and they made it happen.”

Responding to the call was Dustin Haney, a patrol officer and three-year veteran of the force.

Haney brought the birthday boy a goody bag for his birthday with a hat, T-shirt, badge and other fun stuff, but the real treat was the chance for Louis Morelli to get inside a police car.

“I turned on all the lights,” Louis Morelli said.

Haney also let Louis Morelli activate all four of the car’s siren sounds.

So Louis Morelli, what are those different sounds for?

“All different things,” he replied.

Young Louis Morelli already knew enough about police work to know who sits in the back seat of a squad car.

“I was where all the bad guys sit,” he told his mother.

“I told him you never want to be in the back seat of a police car again,” Jessica Morelli said, laughing.

When Haney asked Louis Morelli what was missing on that particular patrol car, the boy immediately recognized that there was no light bar on the roof.

“He was pretty observant,” Haney said of Louis Morelli.

Haney said it made him feel pretty good to make the visit and reach out to a family. “This was just a chance to let people know we care, especially when we strive for community-oriented policing,” Haney said. “It makes an impact to share what we do.”

Jessica Morelli said she and her husband, and also her son, are very appreciative of what the police do, day in and day out. “It just makes me very happy to see that they were willing to come out and make my son’s birthday party so successful,” Jessica Morelli said. “The police protect us and give to our communities every day, and this was so much more.”

Louis Morelli turned 5 years old on Sept. 12, but the party was held two days earlier, on a Sunday. Haney arrived early, before most of the other guests, which gave Louis Morelli plenty of one-on-one time with his new hero.

“I wanted to make his birthday party special, and this blew it over the top,” his mother said. “He still has not stopped talking about it.”

Louis Morelli has several relatives who are in law enforcement, including a grandfather who is a retired Cook County sheriff’s deputy.

“He’s on the right track,” Haney said.

Louis Morelli is still a little young for the police academy. For now, he is a preschool student at St. Patrick Catholic School in St. Charles.